Pushed Too Far
by Peachy Hikaru
Summary: When the Trix harm Miele, Flora has had enough. Dark.


" _Miele! No!"_

They'd gotten there just a little too late; the Trix had struck down one of the first-year students at Alfea who were forming a protective barrier around the school, trying to buy time for the Winx to find the spell they needed from the Hall of Enchantment.

As her sister tumbled to the ground and landed hard, a cloud of dust rising around her, Flora felt rage like never before. That was her baby sister they'd hurt, maybe even killed. It was time to put an end to the Trix.

"Bloom, please check on Miele. Your dragon flame has healing powers, right? I need you to do whatever it takes to save my sister," Flora instructed, too calmly in the other fairies' opinion. They knew how close she was to her sister, and how protective she was of her. She should be freaking out and in tears now, but all they felt was calm resolution.

"Okay," Bloom replied hesitantly, flying down to Miele to check on her. Layla and Stella followed, to give her cover as she healed the younger fairy.

"Flora, what are you planning to do?" Musa asked hesitantly. Flora ignored her, flying up to face the Trix directly.

"Enough." That word was all she said to the Trix, her wings shimmering and glowing in the darkness of the night. They moved just slightly, to keep her still in the sky.

"Oh? And what are you going to do about it, little earth fairy?" Icy asked mockingly.

"Isn't Bloom usually the one who comes to confront us? Change in plans? Trying to spice things up for once?" Darcy added.

"I want to ask you a question, Trix," Flora said calmly. "How much do you know about the magic powers of Lymphea?"

Stormy shrugged. "It's a boring little green planet, what's there to know?"

"I see. Then I want to give you a little lesson about the source of Lymphea's magic."

Darcy scoffed. "Ever the diligent professor, Flora?"

Flora gave them a small smile, but it wasn't a nice one. It was more like a baring of her teeth, without any warmth. "Exactly. Lymphea's magic is based on nature, and we feel the life essence of every single natural being. That includes every person and magical being. And as guardian fairy of Lymphea, I am connected to the reservoir of power that comes from all these natural beings."

"Uh-huh, so? Are you just wasting our time on a silly distraction?" Icy asked irritably, crossing her arms over her chest.

"No, this is actually quite relevant. You see, I can draw from the reservoir at will. That's where my power comes from."

"If you don't get to the point –" Darcy bit out, clenching her fists as her eyes started to turn black, a sign that she was starting to conjure a spell.

"It means, dear Trix, that all the time you've spent worrying about Bloom as your ultimate enemy was a waste of time. I'm the one who can end you. I can draw out your life essence until there's nothing left."

"What? You can't be serious," Icy scoffed, but it was all bravado. She could see it in their body language, their arms held defensively in front of their bodies, leaning slightly away from her instead of into her, on the verge of flying away to safety.

"I don't do it a lot, that's true," Flora agreed. "I can't be judge, jury and executioner. That's why I've always let the others just beat you up and capture you. But this has gone on long enough. You might have killed my sister tonight, and that's something I will not forgive."

"So, what? You're going to try to kill us now?" Darcy scoffed, but they could all hear the nervousness underlying her words.

"No, I won't try," Flora said in that same awfully calm voice, her arms stretching wide as her chest began to glow. "I'll succeed."

She'd always felt the Trix's life essence thrumming under their skin, so strong, so powerful. Evil as they were, some part of her respected their energy, and as much as she wished they would use their power more constructively, she could never bring herself to hate the pure magic that flowed in their veins.

Until tonight.

Tonight, she followed the little tendrils of power running through their veins straight to the core of their beings, where the source of their magic hid. Tonight, she started pulling the power out, hearing with grim satisfaction the way they screamed and howled in agony as they felt the inexorable pull of the fairy of nature, calling their power home to the reservoir of magic that lived inside her.

And it was agony. They could feel the shifting under their skin, the white-hot feeling of magic being dragged through internal organs and streaming out of their chest cavities, going straight into Flora's chest. They felt every second of their powers being drained, and when every bit of power had left them, the feeling, like a branding iron, of their life essence, what more romantic and sentimental fools in Magix might call their souls, the magic spark that gave all life, started pulling away from them.

"No… please, stop…" Stormy begged, her arms outstretched towards Flora as she shuddered and struggled against the pain.

But it was not to be. They'd finally found the trigger point for one of the Winx, and it turned out that fairies, when pushed, could exact revenge just as well as witches.

Flora didn't stop until there was no power left, and the Trix's bodies fell to the ground with a thump. Suddenly, the sounds of battle stopped abruptly and she floated back to the ground.

"Flora…" Helia said, his hand outstretched to touch her shoulder.

She shrugged him off. She knew he was a pacifist, knew that she'd probably lost him forever with her actions tonight. But she couldn't bring herself to care. Helia might be her soul mate, but her sister was her heart. She would give up everything for her sister, and tonight she well might have.

"Later," she said shortly.

She went straight to her sister, still lying prone on the ground. Bloom was in tears, her hands on Miele's chest, her whole being glowing as she tried her best to heal the younger girl. She might not be her biological sister, but she still thought of her as family. Knowing how Flora felt about the younger fairy, it was hard not to care about her.

"Flora…" Bloom sobbed. She didn't know to tell her friend that she'd failed, that Miele's heart had already stopped beating by the time Bloom got there, and while the dragon's flame could heal, there was no way it could bring someone back from the dead.

But Flora could. The guardian fairy of Lymphea concentrated, finding the drop of magic in the endless reservoir that was Miele's life essence. If she was truly gone, her magic would have returned to Flora.

Finding it, Flora picked it from the reservoir, holding it close to her heart as she came back to herself. Bloom wondered where Flora had gone – for a moment, she'd seemed almost non-corporeal, like Daphne had been – but that vanished when Flora put her hands on her chest, drawing out Miele's life essence.

"Here," she whispered to her sister, cradling the glowing sphere of magic between her hands. She guided it to her sister, then pressed it into her chest. Then she did the opposite of what she'd done with the Trix, guiding the magic back into Miele's core, pushing as hard as she could to make sure that it stuck and didn't float right back.

She knew she'd succeeded when for the first time in an hour, Miele's chest shuddered and rose beneath her hands. The younger fairy's eyes opened slowly, as she wondered why she felt like she'd been run over by a bus.

"Flora?" she asked hesitantly, needing her big sister with her when she felt so disoriented.

"Oh, Miele, you're alive!" the guardian fairy gasped, tears welling up in her eyes as she grabbed her sister and pulled her close to her chest.

The sudden movement sparked some vertigo in the younger fairy and she pushed her sister away violently, stumbling a few steps away before she collapsed back onto her knees, retching.

Flora, uncaring, simply floated over to her sister, rubbing her back and pulling her hair back from her face. "Don't worry, it'll pass soon," she reassured her sister.

"Can you handle everything here?" she turned to ask Bloom, picking up her sister once she was done. "I need to take Miele to bed," she explained, already starting to fly to the room that she knew was her sister's, doing a simple spell to unlock the windows without letting go of her sister.

"Sure," Bloom agreed, but the other fairy was already gone.

"Did you know she could do this?" Musa asked Helia, eyeing the lifeless bodies of the Trix.

"I knew that the guardian fairy of Lymphea was connected to the magic reservoir, but I didn't know it could be used in this way," Helia responded. He didn't know what to do. On one hand, he recognized that the Trix were evil, and had to be stopped. But on the other, the thought that his delicate, kind Flora could ever do something like that – it seemed he didn't know his girlfriend as well as he thought. As kind and careful as she was, she also had a core of steel and would do whatever it took to protect her family, even if it amounted to murder.

Was that okay with him? He didn't know.

"Flora…" Miele said worriedly as her sister put her in bed, flitting about anxiously, fussing over her as she pet down the sheets, getting her a glass of water.

"Miele, please let me," Flora begged, stroking her sister's bangs. "I almost lost you tonight. You were dead, Miele."

Miele wrapped her hands around her sister's wrists and pulled them away from her face. "I know what you did, Flora. And I know it took a toll on you. You shouldn't pretend to be strong for me, sister. I need to look after you too."

Looking into the precious, sweet face that she'd almost lost tonight, Flora wrapped her arms around her sister and wept, burying her face in Miele's shoulder.

"Shhh…" Miele said quietly, lying back as she stroked Flora's back. "It's okay. You saved me. You saved everyone tonight, Flora. You're a hero. Just get some rest, okay?" she said, maneuvering her sister so that she lay on the bed beside her. She did a spell to untangle the sheets and straighten them over the two of them, then went to sleep, still clutching her sister.

It had always been the two of them against the world, and it would always be.

* * *

 _A little background info: this story doesn't really fit into canon at the moment; I'd place it a couple of years into the future, maybe when Miele is a first-year student at Alfea. This story was inspired by that episode in season 3 where the Trix knock Miele into the water and Flora is furious. It got me thinking about how far Flora would go to protect her sister. I wrote this fic in about half an hour._

 _I hope this is true to character - I haven't religiously watched Winx in a long time, although I'll admit that I do watch a few episodes here and there when I have the time. It seems that there's less substance in the later seasons, though._

 _As always, I'd love to hear what you think!_


End file.
